January 8, 2006

Can You Say, "Mixed Signals"?

On the walk home after church, we crossed paths with a pizza and a kid and the dad holding them. The dad was asking the kid, who must have been close to three, "Can you say 'cheese? Can you say 'pizza'?" We didn't hear the response [and of course, that might be just right question for the kid's developmental stage, who knows?] But I couldn't help imagining the kid saying, "Dude, even I know you're not a pirate; so why do you keep thinking I'm your parrot?"

Then it dawned on me: from a kid's point of view, we spend half the day badgering him to say something, and the other half telling him to be quiet. At some point, that's gotta get confusing.